The trip that almost was...

Diana, Toni and I took off a bit late today to head towards Lake Kivu, a few hours outside of Kigali. The weather was horrid...like Michelle says, "a grade A, grey day." Rained most of the day so all the photos are hazy but we drove through some gorgeous countryside. Rwanda is called the land of a 1,000 hills and today, we were definitely in the hills and later, the mountains. Steep, windy roads which were actually in very good repair for most of the trip.

We did not make it to Lake Kivu which is a good thing because we would not have made it home before dark. Dark people, in dark clothing on dark roads with vehicles that either use headlights OR tail lights...they never have or use both. As you can see, the river is incredibly muddy...red dirt everywhere and we have had some horrid storms so everything is full and running quickly. Interestingly, the roads and the drainage is incredibly well planned. I compared the systems to those found in Honduras and Honduras has a lot to do to catch up.

This country is going through "reconciliation" to try to mend the terrible rifts caused by the genocide which ended in 1994. It is not uncommon to see people in their 40's and 50's with no arms, legs, gashes in their heads where they were attacked, but survived. Almost no Rwandan has his/her whole family alive.

In April, the first two weeks will be dedicated to "mourning" and we passed this building and a couple of signs regarding genocide. The Hutus and Tutsis are now first and foremost, Rwandans. The country is working very hard to mend and I have asked various people about this and they genuinely believe that the government and even some of the radio stations and media companies have been instrumental in leading the charge. Tomorrow, I will visit the Genocide Museum and praying it doesn't affect me like Dachau did.

It was unclear if this is a museum or not. When we went by, the gates were closed and I hopped over a culvert on the way back to take this photo. Some guys were inside, as you can see, working to repair something. Almost fell into the rock lined deep culvert which was running with coursing water.

Took this photo on the way back into Kigali. This is a typical street scene...tons of people on foot and on the move. We noticed today that people walking miles over the mountains with bundles, water etc. had on flip flops, were bare foot or had on fake crocs. Toni, only here now for three days, was amazed at the little kids lying right next to the road watching the world walk or drive by.

Meet Toni on the left and Diana on the right. Both are housemates with me here at Eddie's house. We went out to an outdoor restaurant tonight...and for a change, it was a bit cool so we had jackets on for a change.